25PCS 6Inch Bungee cord (Multiple Bungee Cords with Balls) by ZOAN, Reusable Heavy-Duty, Black, Ideal for Projector Screen, Soccer Goals, Tarp, Childproofing, Canopy, Motor Homes, Camping
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We rap these around every thing possible. Refer, cabinets and drawers.

I’m not in a 5th wheel, it’s a travel trailer. I have had very good luck using this non slip liner in the cupboards and drawers.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Contact-Brand-Black-Grip-Liner/20895769

I don’t remember if this link is for the exact brand I use. It is just there as an example.

Thanks, Rush & Lola and Logan!

I don't have a 5th wheel but the travel trailer should be the same. Harbor Freight sells a toolbox shelf liner that is rugged and inexpensive. I also use many bungee cords inside and out. I have open storage above some cabinets and I added a board on the front to keep things in place while on the road. Things I cannot properly secure I place on the bed while traveling.

We also have a 2018 Grand Design Reflection 337 and are right now traveling across the country (from TN to West Coast to East Coast and back home!) I feel like I have gotten a good handle on how to stow things for travel so I’ll try to list my methods and products. First I LOVE having a homey camper so I have LOTS of decorating items that I used to have to get out and put away every time we moved. No more!! I found out about using Museum Putty to stick things in place and it works like a charm for things like lamps and knick-knacks. Then there are Command Strips!! An RVer’s answer to just about anything else!! I use them to mount pictures, calendars, bathroom towel racks, key hanger, Reflectix insulation on bathroom skylight and front door window (anywhere the sun comes in too strong). It removes easily and usually does no damage at all, but does need to be replaced occasionally if you are hanging something unusually heavy (I use a heavy duty one to hang deer antlers!!! :)

I pick up my decorative round rug that is in front of the fireplace and put it on our bed and lay things across it that I don’t want to fall down (like my guitar, etc.) I make sure the closet doors are secured with the snap thingies, pull in the slide and close the bedroom door. I stow my bathroom lamp in the linen closet (removing the bulb and lampshade first so it doesn’t roll around and mess up the fixture), and I have a soft basket that I keep in the shower floor for the shampoo, soap and candles during travel. Make sure the shower door and bathroom door are secured (also that your toilet paper doesn’t fall and unroll during travel :-) Everything else stays put very securely in the linen closet. Occasionally things will fall over in the medicine cabinet but nothing is damaged.

I have a basket with a flower arrangement, a tin with pine cones and a lamp on my dining room table. That all gets stowed under the table for travel as well as the Kleenex box. We used to secure the dining room chairs with the straps but no longer do that. Instead I cut some pool noodles to about 12” pieces and made a slit long ways to fit down over the sides of the back of the chairs to keep them
from bumping or rubbing on the wall or each other during travel. It’s worked great! The water purifier, dog food and water bowls, candles and butter bell stow in the sink for travel (I use a plastic sink protector to keep scratches to a minimum in the stainless steel sink). The coffee maker and toaster go under the sink along with my paper towels.

The TV has a great snap-in mount that keeps it secure during travel. I have only very rarely had any of the cabinet doors come open and usually only because I had something very heavy that fell against it, or an extremely bumpy road. I even have lots of glass dishes in the hutch cabinet (the one with glass doors) and have never had it open, nor has anything every chipped or broken. I do use a piece of that rubber cabinet liner on each shelf to keep things from scooting around and it has worked great!

As for the glass-fronted pantry, I use those spring-loaded rods that you can get in camping stores and put those across the 3 shelves. I also use OXO “air-tight” canisters to store most of my food items in (more for mouse protection than anything else, but they have squared sides and fit side-by-side and stack really well!) We mounted 4 spice racks on the inside of the pantry door and that probably helps to keep things in place as well.

I’d say that the cabinet I have the most trouble with is the one over the recliners. I store my books, maps, etc. there and they do shift around quite a bit. So I also put some fleece throws and neck rolls in there between the books and the door and that has worked better.

I have a small coffee table in front of the sofa and for that I place it upside down on a fleece blanket with the excess thrown over the legs to prevent it from sliding into the glass fireplace during travel. It fits nicely between the closed slides and has never moved during travel.

I have a check-off list that I printed out with a label maker and stuck inside the indoor control panel and use that every time I get ready to move to the next campsite. It has saved our bacon a few times!! I don’t have a picture of it, but I can post it once we get to our next destination. I’m sure you’re going to LOVE your new fifth wheel and it’ll become second nature to you once you’ve done it enough times!

Happy Traveling!!!

wow! Those pictures look great!

Great info, thanks for sharing. :up:

Museum putty.

I had a 5th wheel and now a travel trailer and we store things pretty much the same. I use the non-skid shelf liner in all the cupboards. Plus, I like to use small plastic and/or wicker baskets that fit in the cupboards to hold things, especially coffee cups and anything glass. In our older 5th wheel we had a problem with the cabinet doors coming open when going down the road. But, those baskets would sit on the non-skid shelf liner and they didn't go anywhere. I never had a basket fall out of a cabinet even if the door came open. Additionally, If something spills in the pantry, the baskets are easy to clean.

One of the best things I purchased was two foldable storage ottomans at Walmart.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hodedah-Cube-Foldable-Storage-Ottoman-Multiple-Colors/40689123
They hold a lot of the miscellaneous things we have and double as a nice foot rest. When traveling, I semi-wedge them in the pathway between the couch and the kitchen counter and they always stay put.

In the outside storage bay, we have everything in plastic bins and they are packed in pretty tight so they don't move around. I think every trailer is a little different and you'll figure it all out :-) Enjoy your new 5th Wheel!

BTW - Happy Times your 5th Wheel looks amazingly homey!

Thanks to everyone for your ideas! Happy Times, your decor looks awesome! Like a mountain cabin - so homey!

We did two back-to-back travel days of about 3 hours each last week. I had some tension rods already so I used those in the fridge, and put down shelf liner (I need a more grippy version, though) and then used spare paper towel rolls to fill in gaps in the cabinets. Bathroom items went below the sink in a Tupperware-type box, and in the kitchen the liquids went into the sink, inside the tubs I use to wash dishes (this rig does not have a divided sink, hence the tubs for wash and rinse.) We figured we had anything breakable or with liquid inside squared away, and this would be a test to see how everything else did.... To my amazement, the only thing that wasn't where we put it was a bag of chips that fell off the top pantry shelf and was wedged between the shelves and the pantry door! So, I'm VERY happy with how things stayed put!

I'm definitely going to buy some museum putty so we can keep the LED candles and other items out instead of boxing them up each time. And get more Command strips to mount Reflectix over the shower skylight.

Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions!

Mary

PS to Susan - I'm looking at a storage ottoman also and will check out the collapsible kind you mentioned - thanks!

I use the shelf liner like in the link above for the kitchen cabinets and have never had anything shift, although we do have a central kitchen. I have an almost finished roll of paper towel I run better the wine glass stems so they don’t flop over.

I have 2 sets of glass door cabinets, the one having electronics, candles and other small items. I have soft side baskets from the dollar store for keeping things separated and safe.

There are plenty of good tips here on how to keep your things safe from breakage or from moving around, but one very important factor with any 5th wheel is weight and especially weight side to side.

Once you have everything into your 5th wheel, fill your water tank (especially if you fill to go boondocking) or at least fill to how ever much you may typically travel with. Have your propane tanks full and fill the fuel tank in the truck. You want to weigh with the maximum you will carry.

At the scales weigh the front axle of the truck, the rear axle with king pin weight on it, the RV axles and weigh each side of the RV. Some scales may not be able to do this, so find one that can. We flattened springs on the drivers side of ours once over a big pot hole outside Denver and again over a nasty overpass on I-10 in Louisiana. When we finally weighed side to side, we were shocked to learn we were 900 lbs heavier on that side than the other!

Now, when we travel, we move inside stuff from that slide and stow on the other side. That slide has the two recliners, a free standing end table, stationary bike, and a few things tucked behind a chair. All but the chairs get moved over to travel.

The heavy side already has the batteries, Xantrex inverter/converter, water softener, and fridge stove, furnace and water heater, so we stow any other heavy stuff (totes of stuff, golf clubs, our three 5 gallon jugs of water) on the opposite side to displace some of that weight.

Many blow outs are very likely from a weight problem as well as all the other factors surrounding tires. We run a 14 ply tire and have not had any failures in 7+ years and 80,000 miles on the 5th wheel.

Weighing will allow you to be sure you don’t have too much king pin weight in the truck, that your combined weight does not meet or exceed your truck’s GCVW, and that you haven’t met or exceeded your RVs GVW.

Happy travels!

Awesome, Lorraine - thanks so much for the detailed info! The side-to-side weight is something I've thought about because the majority of the storage as well as all the appliances and the bathroom are on the left side of the rig. The only heavy thing on the right is the recliners. (I'm not sure how the 4 tanks Fr/Gr1/Gr2/Bl are situated.)